MESA — Friday night football is back, and with the new season brings a handful of changes for the Canyon del Oro Dorados.
Under new head coach Scott McKee, the 2023 4A state champions saw a number of fresh players get their first career-start on Friday night.
Challenging themselves right out of the gate, CDO went on the road to face off against a talented Eastmark team, but unfortunately the results were not what they had hoped for. Eastmark was able to pick up a 12-3 win, as the Dorados start the season 0-1.
“They’re tremendously well coached,” said McKee, CDO’s first new coach in 16 years following two-time state champion Dustin Peace. “Those kids are great. That’s a state playoff team for sure. We want to play winning teams. We want to play playoff teams. Some teams in Tucson play nine losing teams. That’s not what we do.”
Things started out in favor of the Dorados when they won the coin toss and elected to defer. Defense had a strong outing, forcing the Firebirds to punt after a quick three-and-out. CDO took over at the 28-yard-line, and while they weren’t able to get the ball into the end zone, they were able to kick a field goal to take the early 3-0 lead with 6:35 left in the first quarter.
On Eastmark’s following drive, it looked as if they were going to march down the field and score, until a fumble at the two-yard-line was recovered by the Dorados. In a dangerous situation, the Dorados failed to execute on the following play, allowing a safety to make it 3-2 with 10 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Kicking off to the Firebirds, they took possession at the Dorados’ 34-yard-line, putting the pressure on the defense. While they did give up an explosive play for 25 yards, the defense forced Eastmark to settle for a field goal, making it 5-3 with 10:07 left in the second quarter.
The Dorados were forced to punt the ball away on their next possession, while Eastmark would go on to capitalize with a touchdown on a 1-yard quarterback keeper from Dayne Silver. The kick after was good, making the score 12-3 with 5:04 remaining before the half.
It would be the one and only touchdown scored in the game, and the final points we’d see for the night. Defensively, the Dorados would hold Eastmark scoreless in the second half, but offense just couldn’t seem to find a rhythm.
Dorados quarterback Gavin Bower completed 11 of his 19 pass attempts for around 60 yards, while the offense rushed for around 73 total yards. Meanwhile, the defense gave up just 189 total yards. According to McKee, a large reason the defense played so well was because of leaders like Evan Greer.
“That’s the best football player in the city,” McKee said of Greer. “One of the best in the state. He was a one-man band on the one side there. He was taking care of everything.”
“All I can ask for is to help the team,” Greer said. “I just want to bring everybody up and make everybody better.”
Penalties were also an issue for the Dorados tonight, something they say they’ll focus on tightening up leading into next week.
“We’ve just got to be better at that,” McKee said. “We had holding penalties, we had procedure penalty, we had formation substitution issues. All that’s coaching stuff and that can all be fixed. That’s my responsibility and I’ll get it fixed real quick.”
“The biggest thing I think is just discipline,” Greer said. “We need to get those close downage plays and we need to have less penalties on ourselves.”
Next week, the Dorados will kick things off at home for the first time this season against Bradshaw Mountain (0-1).
“I’m really excited to see the growth from [game] one to two,” McKee said.
“We’re here to work and we’re ready,” Greer said. “We’re gonna bounce back next week.”
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